Guest author, Thomas Kennedy, features a twice-monthly series, Quantum Leap, wherein he guides readers through the fascinating world of quantum mechanics. This is issue 014.
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*This issue is continued from Issue 013, “Chemistry“
In 1928, Paul Dirac produced equations which predicted an unthinkable thing at the time – a positive charged electron. He did not accept his own theory at the time. In 1932, in experiments with cosmic rays, Carl Anderson discovered the anti-electron, which proved Dirac’s equations. Physicists call it the positron.
For each variety of matter, there should exist a corresponding ‘opposite’ or antimatter. Physicists now know that antimatter exists. However, because matter and antimatter annihilate whenever they come in contact, antimatter does not stay around for very long. (By the way, an unsolved problem remains as to why the universe consists of mostly regular matter and not an equal amount of antimatter. Physicists call this “symmetry breaking”.)
There exists not only anti-electrons, but in 1955, physicists found the anti-proton, and later, the anti-neutron. This allows the existence for anti-atoms, a true form of antimatter.
